Titanium foil-sealed thermoelectric generator for seafloor hydrothermal vent

Abstract

The seafloor hydrothermal activity observation equipment needs a stable electric power supply; this study explored the thermoelectric generator (TEG) as the in-situ power supply method. The TEG can utilize the considerable temperature difference of the hydrothermal vent to supply electricity for the observation system. We use the titanium foil combined with the O-ring as the sealing component, thus can decrease the cold side thermal resistance and obtain a compact structure. The pressure test result shows the TEG can withstand pressure up to 20 MPa without leakage. Furthermore, a simulation is conducted to evaluate the temperature distribution of the TEG. To reduce heat loss, Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) material is used as the heat insulation layer at the surface of TEG. The simulation shows that adding the heat insulation layer can increase the hot side temperature by 4.9–7 K. The pool power generation results show that the novel structure TEG can realize 22 W output at the hot fluid temperature of 467 K. This study provides a novel sealing method for seafloor equipment with corrosion-resisting and low thermal resistance features.